(Introducing Vinoba, whom he has chosen to start the individual civil
disobedience movement in October 1940, to the people of India and the world, in Harijan, 20-10-1949)

Who is Vinoba
Bhave and why has he been selected? He is an undergraduate, having
left college after my return to India in 1915. he is a Sanskrit
scholar. He joined the Ashram almost at its inception. He was
among the first members. In order to better qualify himself, he
took on e year’s leave to prosecute further studies in Sanskrit.
And practically at the same hour at which he had left the Ashram a
year before, he walked into it without notice. I had forgotten that
h e was due to arrive that day. He has taken part in every menial
activity of the Ashram from scavenging to cooking. Though he has a
marvelous memory and is a student by nature, he has devoted the
largest part of his time to spinning which he has specialized as
very few have. He believes in universal spinning being the central
activity which will remove the poverty in the villages and put life
into their deadness. Being a born teacher, he has been of the
utmost assistance to Ashadevi (Aryanayakam) in her development of
the scheme of education through handicrafts. Shri Vinoba has
produced a text-book taking spinning as the handicraft. It is
original in conception. He has made scoffers realize that spinning
is the handicraft par excellence which lends itself to being
effectively used for basic education. He has revolutionized
takli-spinning and drawn out its hitherto unknown
possibilities. For perfect spinning, probably, he has no rival in
all India.
He has abolished
every trace of untouchability from his heart. He believes in
communal unity with the same passion that I have. In order to know
the best mind of Islam, he gave one year to the study of the Koran
in the original. He therefore learned Arabic. He found his study
necessary for cultivating a living contact with the Muslims living
in his neighbourhood.
He ahs an army of
disciples and workers who would raise to any sacrifice at his
bidding. He is responsible for producing a young man who has
dedicated himself to the service of lepers. Vinoba was for y ears
director of the Mahila Ashram in Wardha. His devotion to the cause
of Daridranarayan (‘God revealed in the poor’) took him first
to a village near Wardha, and now he has gone still further and
lives in Paunar, five miles from Wardha, from where he as
established contact with villages through the disciples he has
trained.
He believes in the
necessity of the political independence of India. He is an accurate
student of history. But he believes that real independence of the
villages is impossible without the constructive programme of which
khadi is the centre. He believes that the charkha
(spinning wheel) is the most suitable outward symbol of nonviolence
which has become an integral part of his life. He has taken an
active part in the pervious satyagraha campaigns. He has
never been in the limelight on the political platform. With may
co-workers he believes that silent constructive work with civil
disobedience in the background is far more effective than the
already heavily crowded political platform. And the thoroughly
believes that nonviolent resistance is impossible without a
heart-belief in the practice of constructive work.

A friend suggests that I should write a treatise on
the science of Ahimsa. To write such a treatise is beyond my
power. I am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain,
and what I understand, according to my lights, I do…..In the event
of my inability the correspondent has suggested three names in order
of preference for this task: Shri Vinoba, Shri Kishorlal Mashruwala,
Shri Kaka Kalelkar. The first named could do so but I know that he
will not. Every hours of his is scheduled for his work and he would
regard it as sacrilege to take a single moment therefrom for writing
a shastra. I would agree with him. The world does not hunger for
shastras. What it craves and will always crave is sincere action.
He who can appease this hunger will not waste his time in
elaborating a shastra.